The Bruins and Flyers started off the evening in their pre-game warmups wearing the winter hats that they will be wearing at Fenway Park in 2 weeks. Most of the Bruins looked really goofy in them, especially Zdeno Chara, but that came as no surprise. The Bruins thought they had an early 1-0 lead just over 2 minutes into the game as Vladimir Sobotka was able to put the puck past the goal line before Philadelphia defenseman Oskars Bartulis knocked the net loose. The puck was already over the goal line when referee Rob Martell blew the whistle, and they never reviewed it upstairs, which I found to be really surprising. The ref's horrible period continued when they missed Chris Pronger highsticking Marc Savard in the face and they blew the whistle on a delayed penalty on Philadelphia when Marc Savard had possession of the puck. The Bruins had to kill off a 5 on 3 powerplay for 1:13 and did so very successfully, much in large thanks to Dennis Wideman blocking 4 shots in a row with his foot and still staying on the ice; he did not play in the third period because of it. I also have a feeling that the experiment of Blake Wheeler and Byron Bitz on the first line may be coming to a screeching halt as both had numerous scoring chances set up by Savard and both failed, and they haven't really done too much playing with Savard. The game remained scoreless after 1.
The Bruins finally broke the ice with a minute and a half to go in the 2nd period as Shawn Thornton whirled around the net and fired a shot towards the net which Vladimir Sobotka was able to redirect through Philadelphia goaltender Brian Boucher's legs. It was Sobotka's 3rd goal of the season and should have given Boston all the momentum going into the 3rd... Not so much! Philadelphia tied the game early in the third as Aaron Asham fired a pass from the corner that rookie phenom James van Riemsdyk redirected through Tim Thomas' fivehole tying the game at 1. From there you could see that Philadelphia got so much confidence back and absolutely dominated the third period, not giving Boston too many scoring chances. Philly took a 2-1 lead as Kimmo Timonen fired a slapshot from the blueline which redirected off Blake Wheeler's glove and over Tim Thomas' shoulder. I sat there in disbelief. I thought the Bruins had a chance to tie it late when Scott Hartnell highsticked Mark Recchi with 1:03 to go giving the Bruins a powerplay with Tim Thomas on the bench, making it a 6 on 4, but the Bruins lost the faceoff and Philly cleared it out of the zone. When Derek Morris went to retrieve it, he passed it to David Krejci who fired it around the boards, and the puck was then picked up by Kimmo Timonen who turned around and fired a puck from his own goal line, 190 feet away, and put it dead center into the open net with 40 seconds left. That was my cue to leave. I couldn't believe how dead the Bruins looked in the third period and I once again felt bad for Tim Thomas, who once again, didn't get much offensive support. The Bruins don't have another home game until December 23rd when the Atlanta Thrashers come to town and Rene Rancourt will be singing his drunken Christmas Carols.
The Line Combinations were as follows...
- Blake Wheeler-Marc Savard-Byron Bitz
- Marco Sturm-Patrice Bergeron-Mark Recchi
- Daniel Paille-David Krejci-Michael Ryder
- Steve Begin-Vladimir Sobotka-Shawn Thornton
- Zdeno Chara-Derek Morris
- Dennis Wideman-Andrew Ference
- Mark Stuart-Johnny Boychuk
Scoring Summary...
- BOS: Vladimir Sobotka assisted by Shawn Thornton and Steve Begin
- PHI: James van Riemsdyk assisted by Kimmo Timonen and Aaron Asham
- PHI: Kimmo Timonen assisted by Matt Carle and Jon Kalinski
- PHI: Kimmo Timonen unasssited (SHG)
Bruins Goal Videos...
- Sobotka: Chris Farley dancing dressed as Santa Claus on SNL
Warmup Music...
I can't even tell you what one song was... It was AWFUL.
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